One Down, One to Go

Woody can really see the light at the end of the tunnel now! When I picked him up two hours ago, that meant that he just has one hemodialysis treatment to go until he goes back on peritoneal dialysis at home. I asked if the nurses knew his timetable and he said that they did and they also told him that he would feel a lot better on PD. PD is much easier on the system than hemodialysis. Well...think about it...hemo takes his blood out of his body runs it through a machine and puts it back in. With peritoneal a dextrose solution is put in the peritoneal cavity in his body. Through osmosis and other amazing things God designed the body to do...that solution in some miraculous way cleanses his blood. The certain amount of that solution is put into his body four times during the cycles of the machine. Each of the four times it dwells for a certain amount of time that the machine is programmed for and then pumped out each time till the four cycles are complete. The shortest time that all this can take is 8 hours and it usually was between 9 and 10 hours when we were doing it before. This is done daily, but can be done while he sleeps (hopefully). He does wish that the machine didn't make so much noise. We are hoping with the catheter working so well with manual drains and fills that it will work better than it did before. And, we are hoping for many less alarms than he was getting before. Once again, time will tell! But he is very ready to be back doing dialysis at home once again for as long as this new placement of the catheter allows him to do it! Be safe! Be well! Be cautious!